Contributions to China studies
Hervey de Saint Denys made an intense study of the Chinese language, and published works on ethnography and on the history and literature of China. In 1851 he published Recherches sur l'agriculture et l'horticulture des Chinois (Research on the agriculture and horticulture of the Chinese), which detailed Chinese plants and animals that might be potentially acclimatized to and introduced in Western countries.
In 1862 he published a watershed book of translations of Chinese poetry, Poetry of the Tang Dynasty. The book also contains a lengthy preface, L'art poétique et la prosodie chez les Chinois, about Chinese poetry and prose, which sets out the various sinological theories on the differences between written and spoken Chinese, the monosyllabic nature of Chinese, and the ideographic nature of Chinese. A selection of his translated poems from this volume, along with selections from Judith Gautier's volume of loosely translated Chinese poems Livre de Jade (1867), were the fundamental basis for Gustav Mahler's song cycle for voice and orchestra, Das Lied von der Erde.
He also translated Chinese texts such as some Chinese stories, which were not strictly of classical interest but valuable for the light they throw on Chinese culture and customs.
From 1864 to 1872, Hervey de Saint-Denys was president of the Société d'ethnographie.
Hervey de Saint Denys was also a noted collector of Chinese porcelain, and other Chinese art objects such as jade and lacquer works. At the 1867 Paris Exhibition, he was commissioner for the Chinese exhibits, and on 30 June 1867 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
From 1868 to 1870 he was professor of Chinese language at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), then still known as Ecole des langues orientales vivantes.
Following the death of Stanislas Julien (1797–1873), in 1874 Hervey de Saint Denys succeeded him as the chairman of Chinese at the Collège de France, and served until his death in 1892.
In 1878 he was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and remained a member until his death in 1892. In 1888, he was president of the Académie.
Hervey de Saint Denys translated some Spanish-language works as well, and wrote a history of the Spanish drama.
Hervey de Saint Denys also created a literary translation theory, which was paraphrased by Joshua A. Fogel, the author of a book review on De l'un au multiple: Traductions du chinois vers les langues européenes, as "empowering the translator to use his own creative talents to embellish wherever necessary—not a completely free hand, but some leeway to avoid the pitfall of becoming too leaden."
